JAE 2009 Photos

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Ever since I recovered from last years  Japanese Auto Extravaganza at Mersea Island in Essex, I have been looking forward to JAE 2009. The combination of cars, mates, beers, bbqs and sunshine makes it such a laid back and enjoyable weekend that its hard not to love it. JAE 2009 had a new home (Wicksteed Park in Kettering, Northamptonshire) but was superb! Unfortunately this year I was unable to camp due to other commitments on Friday and Saturday night but seeing as the new home of JAE is only 20 minutes from home I was back each day.

JAE 2009 had sensational weather on Friday and Saturday with Sunday being a little cooler and overcast (see the PS13 photo above) but was still warm enough for mid-September. Friday and Saturdays awesome weather meant that BBQs and Beers were on the go all day each day, which as JAE is a static show means that its a great chance to unwind and take a weekend to relax with mates and chill out.

The quality of cars at the show this year was simply amazing with some stands (like those crazy Scots @ JDMyO) rocking only awesome cars with no duds whatsoever! Seriously, I loved their stand and as I was on the next stand over spent most of Saturday staring and drooling…. The trade area was pretty small and weak this year with only a few stands such as Tegiwa, Sumo Power and Banzai really showing some hot cars (Banzai had the new Mugen FN2 Civic Type R on their stand). In truth the trade stands served a purpose and didnt detract from the event at all, but it would be nice to see some more traders next year.

The new venue worked well, apart from having monster speed bumps on the entrance and exit with good facilities on site and plenty of space for campers and stands. Seriously though, for next year please run a route across the grass so that those with low cars don’t have to scrape on EVERY bump! My Civic isnt actually that low yet I scraped on all the bumps apart from one.

So what did those of you who attended JAE this year think? Leave a comment or drop me an email.

If you would like to see the rest of my JAE 2009 Photos click any of the photos above or here

DWYB 08/07/2009 @ Santa Pod photos (Part 2!)

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Set 2 of the photos taken yesterday are now available online…. Check out the set on Flickr here – Santa Pod Drift What Ya Brung Photos

As usual, click the images (or here) to view the rest of the photos from this set. If you would like to see any of this photos appear on next weeks wallpaper wednesday, leave a comment on this post with the IMG number.

South Mimms in the Sun!

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Very few people get as excited as I do about the South Mimms services on the M25, but when you have been to a host of Honda meets at this particular location – you know how good the day will be! Yesterday was no exception, in fact it was one of the best meets I have ever attended!

The weather was incredible yesterday, and with everyone in such a good mood there was a very high chance of win with this meet!

I didnt take as many photos as usual, mainly due to being too busy showing off some new wheel designs. The photos I did take can be found here – South Mimms Honda Meet Photos

South Mimms Honda meet tomorrow! :D

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Cant wait! I love this meet… its so relaxed and full of the best Honda’s in England. Photos…. WILL…. follow…!

If you want to check out the details then take a look at the thread on Civiclife here – ALL Honda’s are welcome.

In other news I got some goodies delivered today that will be on show/available tomorrow

Look out for me and come say HELLLLOOOOOOOOO tomorrow – I’ll be the big dude with the HC shirt on

JTS 2009 @ Silverstone photos

Check out the 1st set of photos I took at JTS on Sunday at Silverstone circuit here in England.

If you want to see the rest of the 1st set, take a look here on flickr or click any of the photos. set 2 will be posted here very soon… I am currently editing the 1615 photos I took… So please be patient!

Japfest 2009 – wonderfully wet!

Saturday saw me force myself to get up earlier for a show then I ever have before, and to be honest it was too early. I picked up my buddy Si at 5am and we headed off to meet up with a few of the guys from Civiclife at Reading services on the M4. We met up with Lex, Poom, Leo and Site at around 6:30am and sat down for breakfast and a coffee. All I can say is fuck service station food… £9.99 for a full English breakfast? Fuck that! It didn’t even look like a half decent one! After we left the services, Si braved the elements for some awesome rolling shots of the cars in the convoy leaning out my passenger window on the M4 at 80mph! Good job dude!

Japfest is the 1^st big Japanese car show of the year here in the UK, and this helps with a superb turnout every year. This year I think there were probably 3000 cars inside the circuit (not counting the car parks, which are always a great place to find some HOT cars!) and walking around a complete lap of the Castle Combe circuit was great fun. I fell in love with a few cars on the NSXGB stand, found some seriously well spec’d drift cars and had my mind opened up to several possibilities for my next car.

Why is it whenever I leave a show I suddenly feel the need to buy 3 new cars? I’m now back to wanting a mint EK9, or DC2 as well as the long lasting choice of a Honda S2000…

Japfest attracts ALL the UK’s top car clubs, so the vast array and variety is a wonderful component to this day out. The Mitsubishi Lancer Register had a huge stand, as well as support from Mitsubishi UK who were showing off their surprisingly interesting looking new Colt Ralliart. Everyone from the Nissan Primera Owners Club, to the Accord Type R owners club and a few drift clubs had stands as well. It’s a joy to walk around and just take a peek at what people are doing for the year, and with the cars spread out around the outside of the circuit the layout lends itself perfectly to doing just that.

Japfest 2009 was slightly let down by copious amounts of rain, but to be honest it was mainly in the morning and didn’t really detract from things. The main downside for me was that as I have no wet weather gear for my camera I couldn’t really take photos in the rain, which was a contributing factor as to why I didn’t take as many photos as I had planned/hoped to. The other factor was severe tiredness – as I cleverly decided to go to the pub on Friday night and then was woken up at 3:15am! Next year I have decided to get a hotel room and go down the night before to avoid the crazy early start as the extreme tiredness was a real drag throughout the day.

Although not unique to Japfest, the track action at the Castle Combe circuit is a real winner each year with scores of J-Tin taking to the track from 9am onwards with very few breaks throughout the day. Castle Combe really lends itself well to the spectator as it’s a fast circuit with superior visibility all the way around the track. Variety seems to be the theme of Japfest and that was certainly visible on track with sessions often including a huge range of cars on track at the same time. As to be expected on a day where anyone can take any car on track, there were a few minor accidents on track but as far as I am aware, nothing too serious… which is good to know as Combe has very little in the way of run off areas.

Another highlight of the day was the variety of old school J-Tin on show as well as being thrashed around the track!

Japfest 2009 was fantastic and I will certainly be there in 2010… perhaps with a TweakCulture stand – we will see! If you would like to view the rest of the photos taken by me then please feel free to check them out on flicr here – Japfest 2009 Photos
What did you think to Japfest 2009? Are you joining me there next year? Let me know via the comments below

Superb S2000 photoshoot video…

I found this video on Vimeo whilst researching my new project, and I loved the laid back style to the video along with the supreme quality.

I had to post a link to Youtube instead of Vimeo as for some reason the Vimeo link wouldnt work. For the record Vimeo>Youtube!

New Volk CE28N Genesis = HOT!

Was reading the superbly unique JDMEgo blog last night and saw these wheels on there so did as instructed and checked out the new Rays website… All I can say is I need these wheels on my next car!

The new Rays CE28N Genesis will only be made in 500 sets and are available in 17″, 18″ and 19″… I need to get my order in fast! (Don’t even have the car they will be going on yet!)

Simply awesome… Check them out on the new Rays website here

Inspiration…

Another Flickr find, this S2000 does it for me in just the right way. The only thing I would change is I’d lose the rear wing for daily driving and bolt it back on for the track.

Perfect. Rocking a Spoon Hardtop, and debadged – this would be EXACTLY the way I’d want to run mine.